Courage and Charisma
by reminiscent-afterthought
Summary: They're not leaders yet. But they can be. And when they wind up in the role of class representatives for their sixth grade form, they work it out...and a few other things as well.


**A/N:** Very late birthday present for a Flame (FlameofSwords), which twisted horribly somewhere in the first version and this is the second one… Hope you like it anyway!

Also written for the following challenges:

Ultimate Sleuth Challenge, Ch 1: Event 4 - write a character study  
Diversity Writing Challenge, d40 - write in the romance genre  
Valentines to White's Day Advent 2016, day 16 - do a character study on your favourite character (or a favourite character if you've got heaps of them)  
The Easter Egg Advent (2016), day 12 - pair up two characters not seen in the franchise together and give them a common task.

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 **Courage and Charisma**

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Kouichi's not a leader in any sense of the word. He's barely a team player, of his little tenure in the digital world is anything to go by. Most of his time on Cherubimon's side was spent being the loner after all (and after hearing Kouji's escapades before he'd firmly been integrated into the group, he thinks he pulled that off far better) and post-purification or defection or whatever one wanted to call it was more spent on the sidelines, what with Hyper Spirit evolution ruling the stage and all. And in between was running around and trying to save all the digi-code they could (which was only, funnily enough, the digimon they'd scanned _before_ arriving at Cherubimon's castle, in the end) and getting their butts kicked by the Royal Knights, it wasn't much of a wonder that they'd never really had the chance to work as a team.

Apart from the whole Autumn Leaf Fair thing – or things. But that had ended with five unconscious children and him confused and in perfectly good health and that ruined the otherwise picture perfect scene. And in any case, none of that had been his plan. Tomoki came up with the snowball throwing machine. Junpei chopped up the digi-code. Izumi got the evacuation moving when it screened to a standstill because the inhabitants were too busy squabbling. He'd just gone along with Tomoki's instructions there and that had suited him just fine.

Though, he supposes, he is technically going along with someone else's decision here too. After all, _he_ didn't put his name down for class representative. He hadn't even been at school the day before (the first day, at that) because of an aura sneaking up on him before he left the house. And it was a good thing he hadn't, because the aura had turned into a full blown migraine and he'd much rather be at home nursing the migraine than in the infirmary of his new middle school on his first day.

And somehow, the classmates from elementary school who are at his middle school too manage to convince the rest of the class, and the teacher, that he'll make a good class representative. Or maybe it's simply a case of none of the boys wanting the job and not wanting to admit it to his face either.

Well, it doesn't matter now, he supposes. Unless he's either hopeless at it or doesn't like it. And both of those are pretty real possibilities, considering the digital world.

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His first day (second for everybody else) is spent catching up. Getting to know everybody (including a few he went to elementary school with, oops?) and the other class representative most of all because she's the one who's collected the stuff he's missed and sacrifices her lunchtime to make sure he's not too confused.

She's taken thorough notes and it's only the first day too, so he's not. Academically, anyway. He still doesn't remember all the names of everybody, much less the little quirks Katou-chan's picked up in one and a half days, but "you'll get there," Katou-chan says, and maybe he will.

And then she repeats it with a sterner voice and a sock puppet and he smiles. The sock puppet is worn but…warm, somehow. Even though he's not touching it. It reminds him of Kouji for a fleeting, bizarre, movement and he wonders what his brother will say to being compared to a sock puppet.

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Katou-chan organised the roster for the first week, so he gets all the even weeks and it's not difficult. Just move everyone one job over – or a few jobs over for the ones that only require one person otherwise students will wind up straightening the desks or cleaning the blackboards for more than a month without a break and nobody really wants that. And they both do the aisatsu and they rotate collecting notes for absentees (unless it's one of them) and things like that as well, and it's not much extra work and no-one's complained so far but really, after the digital world, things are going far too smoothly.

But then again, it's only been a couple of weeks, and school years can be long. And nothing ground-breaking's happened yet.

The first school-wide event changes that.

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Katou-chan looks out of place in the chaos. He feels a little off-foot as well. Who knew their class could be so _loud?_ But they're really not getting anywhere, so he raises his voice a little (because he's their classmate, he can't _yell_ at them and he's not sure he could pull that off in front of anyone who hadn't tricked him – despite how much of the blame lay with him – anyway) and tells them to quieten down and raise their hand if they want to say something, otherwise they're going to be here all lunch.

By some miracle, they hear. By some perhaps unrelated miracle, they listen. It's not quite pin drop silent though as hands shoot in the air (and knock a few things off desks in the process) but that's a good thing. Pin drop silences are creepy at the best of times, and in a classroom with a teacher absent and no exam? Simply not appropriate.

It works, anyway. Though it does feel weird picking people with their hands up because he's not a teacher and Katou-chan's snatched up the chalk and busied herself with scribing and left him to do crowd control (which is fair enough, he supposes, since her voice had just gotten lost in the din), and he catches himself before he says they should find a shell like Lord of the Flies instead. He's not even sure if the school would approve of that book, let alone whether anyone else has read it.

He doesn't say it anyway, so it's all good.

Though he does wonder how they heard _him_ over the din.

'Natural charisma?' Katou-chan tries afterwards, with a shrug.

'I doubt it,' he replies. 'I think I had the aura that kept them away instead.'

She looks a little bewildered at that. He doesn't elaborate, and she doesn't push, either because she knows it's a past thing and he's already over it or because she thinks it's personal.

But things do make a little bit more sense when she tries to teach him how to play digimon cards and he stares at the familiar pictures.

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'So you've been to the digital world?'

Somehow, they manage to say that together, and an awkward pin drop silence follows until they laugh together as well. He gestures at Katou-chan once they've caught their breath, and she continues: 'Not for long.'

'Not physically,' he replies.

She laughs. 'Like Shibumi-san then. But you win there.'

 _Well, that's a nice reaction,_ he thinks. In fact, he rather likes it, so he'll file it away in the "to keep memories" box.

'Why not for long?' he asks curiously.

'Digimon kept on coming to this side,' she explains. 'We only went to rescue Calumon.'

Surprising how they manage to miss things like that.

'Why not physically?' she asks.

'I fell down the stairs and hit my head.' At her gasp, he adds: 'My fault. I was running.'

She picks up her sock puppet. 'Bad Kimura-kun, running on stairs.' There's something odd in her voice, suddenly. 'Bad Juri, running off all alone.'

He places it suddenly, that guilt that's twisted so badly or so well it's only recognisable by birds of a feather, like them.

'Bad Kouichi, who lets a rabbit god take his memories because he thinks it's easier than just talking.' There's a little sharpness there, still. Self-cutting sharpness.

She picks it up, and continues. 'Bad Juri, who drowns in her memories and doesn't take the offered hand to get her out, and almost gets someone killed in the process.'

The answer comes before he can think. 'Bad Kouichi who slices his brother's back open and almost kills him.'

She winces at that, but presses on: 'Bad Juri who hated her stepmother.'

'Bad Kouichi who never gave her stepmother a chance.'

She pauses. He snorts. 'Are we seriously trying to one-up each other?'

She giggles at that – not as lightly as normal but a giggle nonetheless. 'You started it,' she points out.

He mentally rewinds their conversation. 'I suppose I did.'

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Aside from keeping order and organising events and excursions and things, they also have to do a bit of damage control and they flounder the first few times because they're not usually the ones breaking up fights or causing them or even having anything to do with them, so they're not really sure what to do.

But that's the story of their tenure as class reps, isn't it? And the digital world-related adventures too, because really, did any of them know what they were doing miles before the finishing line? Probably not.

So it's his job to do the scolding because he doesn't need to raise his voice for them to _listen_ , and she does the comforting because she's good and sweet and understanding like that, and he's reminded for a moment about scolding Angemon's kids – but that wasn't really scolding, was it?

Not that it saved anything, anyway. Might've added to their guilt bags, if anything.

Bullying on the playground, on the other hand – and he might borrow a bit of Tomoki's speech while he's at it.

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Their lunch together became a regular occurrence…or always were a regular occurrence and at some point they just decided to make it official. Neither of them had their old digital world friends in attendance. 'Most of us went to the same elementary school, but there's a closer high school for me,' Katou-chan explains.

'They're all in Shibuya,' Kouichi explains right back. 'Except Izumi, but she's on the other side of Shinjuku.'

'Maybe she's with Takato and Jenrya.' And Katou-chan giggles at the idea. 'We should ask.'

It turns out they _are_ in the same class, and that Takato is the gogglehead she'd been complaining about all year.

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At some point, they meet up. Katou-chan's brought a few bags of creampuffs from a bakery that's owned by Matsuki-kun's parents and the two groups of Chosen are a mingled mess. Most of them don't know each other. Aside from his own group, Kouichi only knows Katou-chan and Izumi only knows…actually, she knows four of them and that's quite a bit, considering there's seven in all. But the rest look completely lost because they know no-one from the other side at all.

But the introductions go around. Matsuki Takato-kun is the leader. Then there's Lee Jenrya-kun and his little sister, Shiuchon-chan, and the other who that are Izumi's classmates: Shioda Hirokazu-kun and Kitagawa Kenta-kun. And then there's Maniko Ruki-san and Akiyama-Ryo san. And it turns out that there's two more – siblings that are about Shiuchon-chan's age – that couldn't make it because they're visiting their grandparents in the countryside.

And Katou-chan's brought her little brother (half-brother, she explains, then shrugs and says it's about the same thing) and the two youngest are entertained with her sock puppet.

He doesn't even realise he's staring until his brother pokes him. 'Don't you see her enough at school?'

'Uhh…' he replies ineloquently, before collecting himself. 'There aren't many chances for a one woman puppet show at school.'

The way Kouji rolls his eyes, Kouichi knows he hasn't brought it. But he doesn't have to. He's got plenty of ammunition, and not all of it is with older brother (even if by a couple of minutes) perks. 'Picked up that date with Izumi yet?'

Kouichi winds with an extra cream puff because Kouji throws his as a weapon. Oh well.

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Valentines Day brings more chocolate than he's ever gotten before. Katou-chan's locker is equally full. Maybe it's because of their position as class reps? He hopes so, because he hopes this isn't what happens when everybody's hormones kick in.

Hold on… Don't girls go through puberty earlier than boys? Oh dear… Katou-chan might have gotten lucky.

But it turns out his first thought is right. Most of them are thank you notes from his classmates, and only a few are more…romantic.

And then there's a chocolate cream-puff with Katou-chan all over it and, of course, that's his favourite one. And the only one he eats on the spot.

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White's Day is a bit of a chore, especially for Katou-chan because girls don't typically have to give presents on White's Day. And for both of them to give to every single classmate…

'Why not just do something together?' he suggests. 'A little something for the entire class, instead of individual presents for everyone.'

'Ooh.' Katou-chan claps sock-puppet and unclothed hands together. 'Like a picnic.'

And so their class have a picnic on White's Day, full of cream puffs from the Matsuki bakery, some sort of (non-alcoholic, Katou-chan promises) beverage from the Katou bar, and Kimura Tomoko's simple but delicious cake.

Of course, he still has his White's Day gift for her. Kind of.

He clips the hairclip onto the sock puppet. Katou-chan considers it. 'Cute,' she remarks. 'Wish I had a matching one.'

It's in his other hand and he offers it to her with a grin. _Busted._ Her head jerks a little like she's about to offer her fringe, but she catches herself and takes the pin instead.

'Matching set,' he says.' And they really do look a cute pair.

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End of year and they throw a small video together. Not all the classes do it. Not all the classes do anything but they go a bit wild because they can. And there's a surprising amount of photos and little clips with them together. Not just them doing class rep duties, but eating lunch together, enjoying the breeze on the roof or in the yard and – wait a sec, how'd they managed those Valentines and White's Day gifts?!

Someone pokes him in the ribs. 'Did you manage to ask her out while you were at it?'

'What?' he half squeaked, half hissed. In retrospect, he should have just yelled "No!" – but his classmates would've probably taken that as an admission too. Situations like that are a no win, and he doesn't have an honest answer anyway. Because hadn't Kouji pulled that idea out of some dark corner of his mind some time ago?

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'The school year's almost over.'

'Yeah.' Their lunch dates. Being class reps together. Even if they wind up at the top of their year, the positions will go to a new pair, probably. And that's assuming they're even in the same class together.

'It was a fun year.'

'And without someone – or a digimon – trying to mess it all up and make heroes of us kids, too.'

'That's true.'

They sat in a comfortable silence, Katou-chan playing with her sock puppet, Kouichi just looking over the fence.

'I figured I'd let everyone walk right over me,' Katou-chan laughed, suddenly. 'No way I could handle a class of twenty-something people. That first day when I was standing there on my own – I just had to hope whatever mystery guy was the other class rep had a pair of goggles or a strong pair of lungs.'

'Sorry I disappointed.' But it didn't matter. Not now. Maybe not at all. 'Takuya's got the goggles.'

'And the lungs?'

'Takuya too. Giant fire breathing dragon.'

'Oh, like Guilmon then. And you?'

'Me? I'm a lion.'

'Ah.' She smiled. 'Leading the pack.'

'Or leaving them to fend for themselves.' But he thinks about that. He was the youngest of Cherubimon's warriors, in a way. The oldest because he had eleven human years on them, but the youngest since his mind had been wiped clean. 'Then again, they already had a leader.'

'They must've been a pack of something else then. Dogs or birds or…' She giggles. 'Fish!'

Imagining Mercurimon as a fish is just too ridiculous for words. No wonder they have to continue the conversation at a later date.

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'Leomon once said I have a lion's heart.'

He hummed. 'Gentle, but strong and brave.'

'And here we are.' Last day of the year. Their last day as class reps. Technically already over, but they're lingering just a little bit longer.

'And the lioness will protect her cubs, right? Damn the rest of the world.'

'While the lion's got the entire pride to look after.' She pokes him below the ear. It tickles like pokes to the ribs tickle for other people. 'Funny how that works out.'

'Or fate.' And funny how they're there now, lion and lioness…in a sense.

'We should go see the Aizu higan shishi,' she says suddenly.

'All the way to Fukushima?'

'For the lion dances? Why not!'

Why not indeed.


End file.
